Zombies
by Fanfiction of the Dead
Summary: The dead are beginning to rise in the Mushroom Kingdom, craving the flesh of the living, and there's no telling when their hunger will be sated.
1. Wound

**ZoMbIeS**

A bite. All it takes is a _bite_.

There is a region in the Mushroom Kingdom called 'Wurldwunthruwun' or just "World One" that was formerly used as a supply route for the Koopa Kingdom.

Mario, royal knight of Her Majesty Princess Toadstool, patrols these grounds on a regular basis in search of stray Koopas, mischieving Goombas, as well as those spry, devious Parakoopa Troopas. Uneventful as this duty typically is, one of the Mushroom World's oddities that makes this trip exciting is the series of floating blocks that haunt every district, brook, and valley.

Times having changed since the Great War with the evil King Koopa and his crazed Koopa children, these blocks were once the very citizens of the kingdom transformed by a formidable spell into blocks, weeds, and miscellaneous objects strewn throughout the vast regions. Since Mario had released the evil hands behind this magic, few blocks remained in the wilderness that weren't a product of the MBS (Mushroom Block System; patented by Professor E. Gadd). This invention stylized every "Gadd" block connected to the MBS with a glowing '?' sign emblazoned on the front. The three blocks that hovered before Mario today lacked these.

As any good hero does, Mario decided to check this irregularity, lest it be another plot-in-the-making by some truant Koopas who remained clueless about their master's downfall. The only way to examine floating blocks was the good ol'fashioned way - leaping and bashing one's skull into the bottom of each block with enough power to force their contents out through the top, if not outright shatter the block. Long ago, the Koopa Army made hiding places out of these floating anomalies by hiding coins and provisions inside them until it was safe to return to the Dark Land. Mario popped each block open to find that only dust and insects remained.

Footsteps triggered the Mushroom Hero's finely-honed instincts, spying a pair of Goombas, eyes full of malice as they often were, stalking him from the path he'd previously taken.

Mario disposed of them classically, crushing the two round-bodied agents of Bowser beneath his boot. The now-squished Goombas were never a challenge to Mario, something the Koopa Kingdom learned as their assassination attempts became increasingly pathetic, sending wave after wave of the puny two-directional troops to try and impede him.

Mario started to walk away.

A noise.

Scraping against the tiled earth, scuttling on the stumps of their legs came more Goombas, or so he thought.

When he turned around, the wave of reinforcements wasn't there.

Just the two little Goombas he'd squashed... still alive, a bit greener than before. Their crushed remains caught their second wind and restarted their attack. Mario squashed them once again, double-stomping them this time to make sure they stayed down, even though it was unusual for a Goomba to get up after being stomped on once.

So Mario left them there, beaten and crushed by his boot, for nature to do with as she saw fit. He started for home, slurping the unsavory taste in the air. Something bit his ankle. The air tasted like earwax.

Mario cried, hopping on one foot, spinning to find his attacker, the Goomba that had gnawed on the back of his left ankle.

The Goomba that bit him no longer had a face, the damage he'd inflicted on it smashed that into a curled, tumor-like mass like an imploded fortune cookie. It was greener than before, all the brown that once identified it changed to the color of plant vomit. Despite all of this, the Goomba kept attacking him. Desperate, Mario leapt, using one mighty foot, violently surging downward with all of his weight onto the relentless enemy.

Crashing down on it produced a result he had never seen before. When he landed, the Goomba wasn't squashed or flattened. No, the Green Goomba shattered. Shattered into a puddle of crimson, fungal chunks from his killing blow.

As he picked up his foot, the Mushroom Hero witnessed the disgusting remains of the Green Goomba splattered under his boot. Tendons and strands wheezed from his boot to the body.

This wasn't the end, for yet another challenger appeared, the second Goomba he'd "squashed", now bearing the same ugly greenness of its dead comrade. It came after him as well. He repeated the killing blow on this Goomba as well, stomping whatever supposed life may have remained in it, pushing the creature's insides out through the Goomba's fleshy surface and coating his shoes an even darker shade of red.

While this gory victory belonged to the Mushroom Hero, an eerie realization banged against his mind. Something was terribly wrong.

Goombas were by definition a mushroom-shaped, living fungus... they didn't _have_ blood.

Confused by what had transpired, Mario clutched his wounded ankle, which was bleeding thanks to the Goomba biting right through his boot. The pain was scalding, nerve-blistering, and it found nothing but delight in torturing poor Mario who ventured all the way back to the Mushroom Castle where a doctor could treat his injury.


	2. Despair

**First Major Revision: November 30th, 2012 (Friday)**

* * *

**ZoMbIeS**

**ThE SeCONd ChApTeR**

The gods have surrendered this world. Butterfly wings impaled on thorns. Flames kiss every leaf, trees sacrificed to appease demonic overlords. Rituals, seances, and congregations dedicated to sacrifice all else for the promise of dark hope.

At night, many of these creatures grew twice in size. Others became more aggressive. Some display increases in strength and speed. The scientific method has no explanation for this. All symptoms appear to be supernatural.

Light swam from the blade of the hero's sword as he pointed it to the door. The door he'd slammed shut before fists and hands ravenously ate away at it. Drawing his sword, aiming, he saw a putrid hand punch through the other side of the door, scratching and clawing for sustenance. Many of the damned rewarded themselves with this pestilence, calling it immortality. The truth that he saw before him, that they no longer lived to see, was just an insatiable, violent hunger.

Continuing his defense, Link concentrated and unleashed a sword-mimicking bolt of light energy.

This bolt struck the creatures at their core, striking them down without discrimination. Having no perception of danger or mortality, the creatures saw no reason to flee from the attack. Those that padded against the door took the brunt of the bolt, covered in fissures of white light. Sickly flesh began to burn pleasantly, making the twisted creatures crumple in their positions.

The creatures that rowed behind them ripped them apart as easily as they had anything else, what few senses they still possessed now set off by the retaliation, doubling their efforts.

Nails and planks from the doorway coughed and soon gave the creatures access. Hands ripped the door from its station.

The final barrier was down. Link fired a second sword-bolt that engulfed two of the man-eaters, shooting them backwards and summoning four more that scrambled over their so-called companions, howling as they ran for him. Link met these four with a third, and final, blast that dissolved three of them, leaving the fourth to lunge at him.

Link backpedaled and cut two more down, inciting more of the creatures to avenge their fallen. Never before had such violent beasts hounded him, not in this or any other lifetime. Not within the bowels of any dungeon had he seen creatures so ferocious and hideous. Their tenacity was unmatched in all of Hyrule... what remained of it.

Still Ganon sat in his chair, pointing and laughing at him in the corner of Link's altruistic mind. Had the dark wizard manipulated the strings behind this disaster, or were greater evils at work?

Link clenched the hand of his sword and thrusted the blade into a torso, but the rest of the creatures buckled around him. Those slain by his sword burned religiously on the floor, but the zeal of their brethren stood firm.

Hands slathered the Hylian Hero.

Three dug into his face, tearing his cheeks. Bits of neck and shoulder separated. Four more creatures stumbled over him, knocking him and others off-balance.

The horde plummeted upon him. The din of their onslaught silenced the blue-skinned warrior as he surrendered... death certain.

His remains were consumed. His physical self became part of them. His thoughts, everything that made him special, floated to a higher existence.

In forty-nine days, the kingdom of Hyrule was pronounced "overrun".


	3. Bone

**First Major Revision: December 1st, 2012 (Saturday)**

* * *

**ZoMbIeS**

**ThE thirdead ChApTeR**

Unlike most fairy tales, this princess almost never seems to fall asleep.

Princess Peach Toadstool was never to be rushed from sleep unless there was an emergency.

Today, her most trusted adviser bustled into the room, causing Peach to roll out of bed. A comical scene would have developed with her adviser apologizing a hundred times for witnessing Her 'Untidy' Majesty, and for causing her accident, if not for the news that swiftly flew from the old toad's lips.

"Mario!?" Peach gasped.

Ignoring her servant's presence, the princess quickly dressed herself in a white medical uniform, blotting out Toadsworth's many apologies. In her youth, the Princess indulgently studied the healing arts with the instruction of several court magicians from Nimbus Land, the kingdom of the cloud people with a strong affinity for magic. To this day, in regards to healing, she has no "equal".

Three other Toads (the unusual name for the loyal citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom) appeared and guided the princess and her servant to the medical wing of Mushroom Castle.

"Sir Mario is there, suffering from a rapidly deteriorating injury." Toadsworth explained.

The princess observed her knight, her hero splayed across the hospital bed. A trail of blood showed the direction he'd been carried in from.

Nurse Toads dutifully kept pressure on the wound, holding towels and blankets against the still open wound. All attempts at cleaning the foul injury were thwarted since the bleeding never ceased. Mario's condition worsened by the second. His skin was lividly gray, pupils transparent and weak, searching for escape. The boot covering the wound was splashed with fungal matter and blood, filling the present Toads with the often-felt paranoia of the unknown. Witnesses claimed that Mario, who regularly routed stray Goombas from the valleys of the Mushroom Kingdom, screamed bloody murder while dragging himself over the hills of Wurldwunthruwun. By then, he'd still been clutching his leg in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.

Regular procedures clearly weren't working if the princess had to be brought in. If and when medicine could no longer cure an ailment, magic was the Mushroom Hospital's only resort.

Forcing herself to forge a hopeful smile, Peach flattened her palms together, muttering words of power that offered blessing, nourishment, or success to those they were intended for.

A white radiance shimmered along her wrists and hands, pulling all sorts of "Ooos" and "Ahs" from the crowd of practicing Mushroom medical students observing the princess's magical prowess. Gracing the air with a wave of her hands, Peach lowered her hands over Mario's injured leg. The light radiating from her hands traveled onto the wound, flashing twice as it dissipated.

A medical miracle was happening. All the blood that Mario spilled evaporated from the bed, the bandages, and the floor. All of it, gone, like dust from a broken vase. Peach checked his temperature; his skin was greenish-yellow now and his temperature grew a little. Compared to all of the failed previous attempts of her staff, this was some progress at least.

Cheers from the Toads bloated the room.

Mario blinked, silencing them. His jaw hung in surrender, his eyes continued blinking mindlessly until the princess leaned over him, examining his face.

The poofy mustache he sported hid the goofy smile on his lips. Nurse Toads already began removing bandages and clothes from his leg to see the full effect of the princess's magical healing. To the Mushroom Hero, it felt like ten tons of iron had been sucked out of his leg. His skin felt like gelatin. Soft, malleable, edible. Moments ago, he was bathing in pure agony. Now it was as if none of that mattered or phased him.

White-gloved hands massaged his ankle once the final bandage was unwound. Underneath, the bite mark was still visible. The wound was deep, enough to see traces of bone.

Peach never doubted her skill at magical treatment. This was the first time she hadn't fully healed her patient on the first try.

The princess refused to give up.

Readying a more powerful spell to regrow damaged tissue, Peach started to chant when Mario grabbed her wrist. Sitting up made their faces close. Blushing, Peach knew that Mario's language usually consisted of short bursts and excited phrases. As he whispered to her though, all she heard was Mario letting out a steep, cold breath.

_Crunch_.

That was the sound that came before the princess cried out in heaven-shaking horror. The hand that she used to heal Mario was now lodged in between the Mushroom Hero's teeth. His jaw crashed down like a bolt of lightning, squashing her fingers with supernatural force.

Tears and blood splashed the princess's dress as she fought to free herself. The surrounding Toads panicked. Some tried to help the princess while others cowered, backing into walls and medical equipment.

When Peach was finally freed, Mario hadn't let her go peacefully, tearing off one of her fingers. The missing her finger was flung through the air and into Mario's mouth; he gnawed on the severed finger before swallowing it whole. Color drained from his eyes, creating hollow white orbs that lacked any sort of focus, lost in some unseen ether.

This frightful act of violence combined with Mario's now-ghoulish appearance disarmed the Toads and the princess into staring at him, sickened as they watched him chew the princess's finger into paste and swallow. Finished with his little treat from the Mushroom Princess, Mario ravenously sprang from his hospital bed toward the grouping of Toads, grabbing their limbs and tearing them away to devour them, piece by piece.


	4. Bite

A letter made its way through the royal channels. Only the fastest, most urgent news arrived through this method. The letter was signaled to the Kingdom of Acorn, the hierarchy of the Mobian and Segan regions toward the south, and wound up in the hands of Queen Acorn herself. Its contents: that the kingdom of the mushroom people was under threat of biological attack and potential invasion, and that their monarch herself was attacked.

Only four people were informed while others were kept in the dark. No one needed a reason to panic, not with two or three similar incidents occurring in the Kingdom of Acorn already and a containment effort already begun in the neighboring Hyrule.

The Queen and her knight, Sir Sonic Hedgehog, were aboard a transport to Christmas Island when the letter arrived. Sonic, the fastest messenger the Acorns could possibly ask for, immediately volunteered to investigate, despite the Queen's insistence that he remain until the situation could be further analyzed. The Acorns, the Mobians, and the Segans were not the favorites of the mushroom people, and vice versa. And it wasn't just there relationship, but a sharp feeling of dread that rose in the Queen's mind when she pondered this "plague" that was popping up simultaneously. Hyrule was in a constant state of peril like many of its neighbors; they had swordsmen, rangers, knights, weapons of sorts.

The Mushroom Kingdom was a neutral region. No weapons, very few magical defenses, and barely any knights or fighters within their government. Princess Toadstool trusted her two knights, the famous Mario Brothers, to protect her domain and herself, and they had done a respectable job at it. If the brothers had failed now, at such a junction... what could that mean for the rest of the world?

Still Sonic went, with the Queen's blessing, and he went on foot, bringing a traveling cloak with him that flapped around his neck as he sped across the sea covered by two white walls of water.

Hyrule, Acorn, Mushroom, and Castlevania, the four kingdoms of Videoland; each with their own customs while holding the four largest populations in the whole world. The Hyrule and Mushroom Kingdoms allied long ago because of their champions, while both kingdoms sat north and south west of each other respectively. They formed the left half of an X, and on the other end of that X were Castlevania and Acorn. Acorn was a bit further east, and with much smaller trade routes than any of the other three kingdoms and even less contact with the outside world. Sonic breezed across this imaginary "X" line to the Mushroom Kingdom, running above the Ocean World toward the Happy Harbor.

The lack of activity and ships diverted Sonic's attention to the west, and across the Ocean World he found Rogueport. The docks were trashed with flaming or sunken ships... survivors straggling from the wrecks of the destroyed craft. People were leaping off the boardwalks, and the few ships that made it out didn't wait for any extra survivors.

Stifling his emotions, Sonic rushed towards the people that weren't beneath the fists of the sea and carried them off in his haste, flinging them onto the docks against their will. He bolted in the direction of Mushroom Castle... but he couldn't tune out what the Rogueport citizens he saved were screaming at him, cursing him for saving their lives. When the blue blur moved further into Rogueport's main plaza, he saw certain buildings in the process of burning, some already blackened or cut down into stalks of ash and smoke. It took every fiber of control for the hedgehog to pass by these sites, to not investigate and help with the relief effort. And then something grabbed his wrist and...

..._crunnrcch_.

The surprise of this brought the hedgehog to a reactive halt, and his momentum shook the attacker from him. Sonic clutched his hand. He didn't even need to take off his glove because the bite had gone through to bone, the pain was ridiculous and it yelled at him, calling him an idiot for not paying attention. The attacker ricocheted into a street pole, and the attacker looked like a rabid dog. It was a Mushroom Person, a Toad in their language, with eyes as white as snow that trembled on a branch, begging to reach the ground. From afar, he saw that its head was "missing". Someone had ripped a huge chunk out of it, and that chunk revealed some kind of fungal brain matter.

Pain and paranoia got Sonic into a combat stance, and while the momentum would have stunned the average person, this Toad got up, didn't clean itself or apologize, and extended its arms as it started after him. Sonic backed away from it, "Stay away! I don't want to hurt you! Just... just back away!" and the creature continued, ignoring him. Sonic gulped and crouched, converting into his ball form. He spun and dashed forward, bashing straight into the stupefied Toad and knocking it into the air.

* * *

Sonic stayed and helped Rogueport's citizens clear out the remainder of the "creatures" that had wandered in from the nearby forests, and then he made sure the last retreating citizens made it onto the escaping barges and boats.

This port town was undoubtedly finished. What had been on its last legs, the Pianta Parlor, was part of a ruin, a graveyard. Toads, mushroom creatures, and anthropomorphic turtles rested at the center of each building and around the town, and that excluded what hadn't already been burned. The citizens claimed that burning the creatures seemed to be the only way to dispose of them. Sonic, sensing the danger, knew the Mushroom capital could be no better off if this invasion or plague had already torn down such an outer-edged place like Rogueport. He was already an hour late for staying to help Rogueport's citizens. And to top things off, he heard something shudder from under the rubble.

The Toads that he had knocked into buildings, buried under ceilings and wood were now pushing each other out, breaking free. The Spin Dash could easily tear through metal or force its way through stone. The creatures took the full force of his quills as he rammed into them, several of them had shredded faces and torsos, some were missing limbs and none of them stayed down.

_I have to find the Princess_! Sonic took off to Mushroom Castle. His hand felt aflame, still bleeding, and he didn't feel the wind on his face.

All the way, the entire journey to the castle... Sonic realized that it wasn't just Rogueport. The Mushroom Kingdom was covered in forest fires.


	5. Mortality

The first four Toads that Mario attacked were fortunate. He gave them only minor scrapes or bites: a scrape of mushroom there, a tap on the skullcap there, a nip on the old arm.

What followed was a series of savage takedowns and things that no one present could comprehend. He started by grabbing one of the medical students and chewing down right on his skull, spraying bits of shroom and fungal matter across the room with supernatural force. The noise of each bite Mario took sounded like a child dropping a jar. He tore through the helpless Toad's skull like it was bread, and the Toad had no time to scream before its upper brain functions were wiped out, and soon enough Mario rummaged through his chest cavity and slurped up his intestines, nibbling downward, spitting out bits of clothing. He picked through the fungal matter while everyone else watched, mortified.

And his non-eaten victims started convulsing in rhythm.

They turned a sickly, pale green color and all of them got up as though their injuries no longer mattered. Now more corpse than mushroom, Mario's victims lumbered towards their colleagues and started gnawing on them as well. They took entire arms and legs, or even feet if that was all they could take, and they took with one simple press of their teeth. They lacked irises, for their eyes were now white and devoid of emotion. They pulled two more of their Toad brethren into their mists, and as they screamed they were feasted on by their cannibalistic colleagues. While they didn't seem to take pleasure out of ripping the flesh off of their former friends, they didn't show any secret remorse.

Professor Toadsworth held onto Princess Peach, and both saw Mario twist off a Toad's arm like a wet cloth, then hold it over his face, letting the blood and tissue seep into his mouth. Mario belched a vile odor and stood up, turning to the nearest wall where he instinctively rotated and wailed his fists against it in a mockery of his own classic Spin Jump, and the wall collapsed on impact. He didn't land gracefully, and when he stood up again he wobbled and tripped along the bricks of the wall he demolished, and fell through the hole he'd made and off the side of the Mushroom Castle's Medical to his...

"Mario!" gasped Peach, held back by Toadsworth.

"No Princess!" ordered Toadsworth. The old Toad saw her bloodied hand and anger filled him. Mario had fought and protected the Princess with all his heart dozens of times. It wasn't far-fetched to say Mario loved the Princess even more than her subjects, but this attack... this mayhem was happening right now, and there was nothing he could to stop it. "That is not Mario! And these Toads... they are not themselves! We must flee and warn the guards, barricade this area!"

Toadsworth and Peach darted from the path of the Toads that had transformed. They hopped over one Toad whose stomach had been pulled open by his friend's hands who slowly ate his innards, and hurried out of the room, just as one or maybe two of the non-skin eating Toads pursued them, chased by their cannibal colleagues. As they met the princess and the professor past the doorway, Toadsworth slammed the door behind them, thwarting the sloth-like monsters within.

Knowledge flashed in their minds, the creatures themselves were slow and uncouth. All of the cannibalistic Toads were at least, but Mario moved a bit quicker. Of course the former knight wasn't a Mushroom afterall, his physiology was grossly different from their own especially in this case. When he killed the Toads, the ones that weren't eaten alive... he infected them, or transferred this behavior to them somehow.

Or more practically they were just agents of the Koopa Kingdom, products of some ill, sinful dark magic whose transformation was triggered by the bite Mario gave them. Decrepit phantoms designed to consume and terrify the living. This must have been another devious Koopa plot. They were sending in carnivorous monsters morphed into the shape of Mushroom people, in addition to a copy of the Mushroom hero himself to destroy the Princess's trust in him.

Even for King Koopa however, this plot was so insidious and cruel - making the Mushroom people eat each other, fooling them into eating each other. Toadsworth shook his head and returned to the matter at hand: the Princess was wounded, and her attackers were naught a room away from them.

The medical wing door groaned as something bashed it from the other side. The frightened Toads barely deterred Toadsworth from holding Peach's hand for study. The wound was deep and was showing similarities to Mario's injury, but they didn't have any bandages or material to suture it with. Peach bravely tore off a section of her dress and wrapped it around the wound. Her left hand glowed white and released a healing balm known to remove blood and heal all wounds.

And just as it did before, it stopped working halfway. The blood evaporated and one could still see bone through the missing, stolen flesh. The skin refused to regenerate, but what Peach described as a scalding pain had vanished. The claim didn't relieve an ounce from Toadsworth's jar of worries, nor the Toads who had witnessed the surgery.

Peach decided to ignore her wound for the time being and tore another small piece of her dress to tie her long hair into a ponytail. A hardened face, and a pair of shortened eyes didn't improve her once rosy cheeks, now pale as a pebble. As the professor studied her, he saw death pulling on the princess's cheeks and exposing the bone within. It actually made her look rather determined, especially for a Princess who was the victim of so many kidnappings.

An explosion shook the building.

All of the Toads, Toadsworth, and the princess wobbled from the force of it. They searched for the origin of the explosion, and realized that it came from the room they had just fled.

"Why is Mario doing this? This is so horrible!" the princess said, shaking her head.

"I have told you all that I know, and taught you everything that I do, Princess." Toadsworth whispered. "You have done your best, but for the time being, we must assume that one of the Brothers has become our enemy. And with just a single bite, he will create more enemies, turn our very people into our enemies."

Underneath her white gloves, Peach's knuckles turned white as snow. "We have to find him, make him see reason. And if not... we destroy him."

The professor nodded, "Indeed. This can still be handled, but that explosion was most disheartening. We should contact Sarasaland and find a way to ensure your safety until-"

"No." the Princess looked at the two surviving Toads and commanded, "I want you two to find more guards and make sure nothing enters or leaves this area!" the Toads nodded and ran to follow their orders. "Toadsworth, contact Lavalava Island and tell them to send ravens that can rebuild the wall inside that room! We need to keep these monsters imprisoned, and we need to find a stronger prison to hold Mario."

The princess's kind temperament was almost invisible even to her trusted adviser, yet Toadsworth still felt the benevolence in the princess's orders, from the way her eyes tingled with every word to how her lips shuttered as each commanding syllable left them. "The other problem, my Lady-"

"If Madam Luigi is our enemy, then she shall meet the same fate as her brother."

Before Toadsworth could offer his response, a blue light zipped into the room and stopped in front of them.

A blue hedgehog appeared, and he violently collapsed as if he'd been dealt a mortal blow.


	6. Agony

Somewhere within the magical halls of Castle Hyrule was a door that led into a sky-grazing palace, a place severed from earth and time, built solely for personal reflection. A knowing breeze caresses every corner, warning unwary travelers that they will plummet for an uncertain length of time should they descend from the palace grounds. Every part of the sky and clouds is as real as they are in the outside world.

Zelda always found herself calmed by this place, closing her eyes and letting a warm peace touch her thoughts. She always sat at the same little pavilion, made of stone and iron, and meditated on the past. The memories of her parents, King and Queen of a kingdom now her own, and of the boy that she had met and returned to another time with her power, a power she no longer wielded. The palace itself was an echo of the world this boy once fought to save, before the Gods unleashed the Great Flood and obliterated a world touched by the insidious dark wizard, Ganondorf.

The wizard's image entered her mind and boiled with her anger. She clenched her teeth, breathing in small, sniveling hisses. She stopped when she bit her tongue, almost drawing blood, and unrolled her fists in despair. Her body tensed when she exhaled and scanned the skies, watching the wider clouds stroll by. They almost looked to be getting faster when footsteps approached from behind her, and she knew these steps well.

Hyrule's newest champion stood behind her, and like always he said nothing at first. Since they had first met, he rarely spoke above a whisper or gesture. He reminded her greatly of the hero who helped seal the evil Ganon away, though their likeness was uncanny, it was simply impossible for there to be a relation or otherwise. This champion, Link, existed in an entirely different world than the older Link of the past.

Hyrule no longer felt the id of Ganondorf, making the need for knights very scarce since tyrants like Bowser, Robotnik, and Dracula were all incapacitated. Zelda had forced the previous Link with a magical spell, but this Link refused to remain apart from Hyrule or its princess, always finding a reason to come see her and share something from his travels. She was amused by it nonetheless, but today something grim lurked in Link's eyes.

"What is it, Sir Link?"

Link's typical expression, a knowing but silent stare, was followed by a letter he pulled from his back pocket. He handed the letter to her, and she read it with periled haste.

"A... a plague?"

* * *

_Present Day_

_Mushroom Castle Medical Center_

Sonic fell to his knees and started coughing blood, clutching his chest harder with every violent cough. He was close to blacking out, if not for Peach shouting his name in horror again and again. Something pulsed through his arm and chest and all the blood he'd just coughed up was gone. She had healed him, for now at least, but the dryness in his throat and the pain in his chest were slightly alleviated at best. He thanked Peach for her assistance and wiped his mouth.

"Princess, this situation is worse than you realize!"

As Sonic explained, Princess Acorn wanted the four kingdoms to meet in the United Console, a gathering place for the leaders of each great land in times of urgency. The Console was known by many other names such as the United Kingdoms or the Council of Consolement, but whatever it should have been called, the last few disasters - The Great Flood, the appearance of Dark Gaia, Bowser's theft of the Star Rod, and the Roboenza outbreak - were all proof that such assembly was needed. All meetings took place faraway on the meridian line, a region equal to all four kingdoms.

Though the princess had no will towards Sonic or the Acorn dynasty, her adviser was less than thrilled to see the hedgehog here now, trying to escort the princess away to a foreign land unguarded. The hedgehog claimed that the primary reason for gathering was due to a similar plague spreading throughout three of the four great kingdoms, and Hyrule especially.

""H-how can we be sure if this is the right course of action Princess! We need to contain the problems in our own kindgom first before we meddle with others!" said the professor, bilously.

"This isn't the time for prejudice, Toadsworth." Peach replied. "In addition to your orders, mobilize the Yoshknights and form a perimeter around this sector! When Sonic and I return, we'll retrieve Mario! If for some reason the situation should worse and I don't hastefully return, assume the worst and use the Block spell!"

"But Princess, tha.. that is-"

"-Dark Koopa magic. I know. If anything should happen to me and the kingdom burns, use it no matter what."

Sonic lifted Peach swiftly into his arms, and together they disappeared like a vanishing wind.

With the Mushroom Princess in his hands, Sonic made his way back to the 'X' line. She told him about how Mario was transformed into a flesh-eating monster and how each of the Toads he bit transformed as well, which was all too similar to what Sonic had witnessed in Rogueport where civilians were turning green, had glowing yellow or white eyes, and started attacking other people for no reason. The news shocked Princess Peach, who had believed the only creatures were in the Mushroom Kingdom. Her promise of containment flat-lined, she tried took a deep breath before Sonic warned her not to, saying that deep breaths while they were moving at this speed was a bad idea.

The Console Building grew on the horizon. Between the two white walls of the sea that splintered in front of them, Peach just barely saw the spear-tipped roof of the building and the gray-white texture of the oval walls. The pillars represented each of the regal kingdoms; one had a silver Mushroom emblazoned on it, another had the sigil of the Triforce, while another had a red tapestry tied around it, representing the Acorn family, and the last was an ornate, Transylvanian pillar with a gargoyle face inscribed in the center of the pillar, in theory frightening and certainly characteristic.

The hedgehog and the princess rushed through the main doors and into the secret conference room, a place so secret that anyone encased within could and would never be found. The room was created as a "chamber" that would descend once the room was activated. The center building around the room would close, forming a giant barrier all the way around and sealing all members inside, blocking any form of electronic contact from the outside. The building then rotated as a pair of reinforced doors close around it followed by the chamber gently descending into a long, endless tunnel. A light on the inside confirms that the chamber has reached its destination, some place near the heart of Console (i.e - another word for the world these many lands inhabit. Some call it "Earth", while some call it "Mobius", though "Console" is the commonly-accepted title in this day and age).

A screen inside the conference room turned on and showed a map of the world, highlighting each major nation.

Queen Acorn, Princess Zelda, Sonic, Princess Peach, and some of their royal guards were present; the lords of Castlevania had denied the request to meet. Normally, this would have been an offensive act, but the current problem was still on the outbreaks in the Mushroom, Acorn, and Hyrule kingdoms.

"The first reported incident was in Hyrule." Rumors of her kingdom's downfall had circulated long before this meeting, but many also believed that Hyrule had kept its swords sharpened due to constant threats from Ganon's disciples. Zelda continued without putting any weakness to the truth, "-It goes without saying that my kingdom has taken the worst casualties, and now this _plague_ has spread to other continents."

"Just minutes before I arrived, I saw my own friend turn into one of these creatures. They devour the living, and their victims will do the same in an unknown period of time. However, Sir Sonic claims that some citizens were seen turning into these creatures almost as soon as they were bitten." reported Peach.

"That can only mean that this thing is getting stronger with each person it infects."

"We're calling it a disease now?"

"A plague will spread without any logic or reason. A vengeful deity can send down a plague on a whim. A disease builds, it gains strength, and it has a weakness."

Zelda frowned. "Keep in mind that we have no knowledge of how or where it began. We have no proof that it can be reversed, and the damage is..."

Peach glared at Zelda, keeping her hands on her lap with a frown floating on her lips. "Keep in mind, Sonic and I have been... bitten. I believe it can be suppressed by magic. Medicine has had no effect on the afflicted."

"How were you bitten?" asked Sally, looking at Peach and Sonic.

Sonic grunted. "I... I got bit when I was on my way through Rogueport. One of them got its hands on me in the chaos, I shook it off and retaliated."

"Your eyes..."

On cue, Sonic's eyes became almost colorless. The hedgehog was struggling with his injury now, and Sally had to keep him from tipping over.

"These symptoms will continually worsen. I haven't had time to tell, but the victims may not become instantly deceased. However, even the deceased are not immune to this. We aren't looking at just undead skeletons, we're witnessing corpses and barely-living organisms springing after the living, part of a massive feeding frenzy."

Everyone had theories on the nature of this thing, a plague, a disease, a curse. All with various remedies and solutions, but there was no a cumulative solution. And danger drew ever closer to completion, as Sonic felt numbness pour into his feet and he violently collapsed, beckoning Queen Acorn to his side. While his arms thrashed about, there was a second crash.

Peach, too, had fallen. A Hylian guard walked over to check on her, but from the Princess's trembling form, there emerged only grumbling noises...

..._crurnch_.

The guard screamed and yanked herself free, but her arm was caught firmly in the princess's now ghoulish jaw. She wrenched herself back with a deal of strength, but her escape caused her entire arm to tear open, pulling out bone and sinew, and the pain overwhelmed her and frightened others. The Hylian guards ran over, but Peach quickly swiped their comrade's arm around, using the injury itself as a weapon. The guards caught their female comrade, but she was still screaming as Peach gnawed on her elongated limb, and Peach dropped the arm and tackled them, accidentally plunging her belly straight into the spear of a guard who fearfully caught her approach.

A fight broke over the table as Peach was thrown over the table and nearly into Zelda herself, who sidestepped the Mushroom Princess but not without her dress being savagely pulled and shredded by Peach's hand, yanking Zelda down hard onto the ground. The Hylian guards circled around the table to confront Peach, but they heard another gruesome crunching noise nearby.

They turned to see Queen Acorn, face lathered in blood and agony, as her very hedgehog knight chewed through her breast and into her upper right arm. The crazed hedgehog spotted them, dropping his Queen, and lunged at them with inhuman speed, biting in the first Hylian guard and ripping out the throat of another.


	7. Hope

Piles of shroom and fungus cluttered the streets of the Mushroom capital city and were joined by puddles of yellow, green, blue, and yellow liquids.

Toad Town is now occupied by a transformed species; a new branch of the Mushroom people with grayish-green skin and wide, pus-colored eyes. These mushroom people no longer breath; they wail, and with time their mushroom caps begin to rot and their colored spots begin to wither and fade away. They have no memory of anything that was important to them. The transformed mushroom people have only one goal: to eat the living. Even loved ones, once transformed, will attack and devour the first sibling or parent that they come across. Once transformed, mercy no longer exists. And once the cravings of this sickening transformation have been fulfilled... a second transformation takes place.

Luckily, an athletic Mushroom citizen could easily outrun their blighted brethren. The crazed pursuers are more often than not injured from the encounter that transformed them, with very rare exceptions. The hope this presented was infantile, and soon cast into darkness as winged shadows crawled among the earth.

They descended, carnivorous angels with mutated wings, until they fell upon the Mushroom city. Flying jackals who struck down their victims and tore off their heads, then flew back up and carried their meals into the sky before hurtling back downward and repeating the cycle. As more Paratroopas arrived, they blocked the streets and buildings, using their archaic muscle memory flight patterns to prey upon the helpless citizenry.

The Goomba and Koopa villages were now markets of slaughter where the dead quickly blew through and found their sustenance. Dryites emerged from Dry Dry Outpost, their turbans chewed open and fungal matter oozing from their skulls. It seemed that no species of Mushroom or Koopa was safe. The only place that had time to board its windows was Toadley Clinic, and wave after wave of Goombas rammed its doors while Parakoopas poured over the building like bees.

And this scene repeated itself again and again, even beyond the walls of Mushroom Castle, to the snow-topped peaks of faraway mountains to the dome-shaped trees in the distance.

The only lull in this massacre took place an hour after the first Dryites were spotted.

Toadsworth and a bunch of scholars, students, and others were hole up inside Castle Toadstool.

Getting a message to Lavalava Island was futile; when the Ravens arrived, a fireball singed two of the Ravens and nearly incinerated the third, and the remainder of their squadron retreated in the opposite direction, never to be seen again. The old professor speculated that certain avian species would slowly become infected as well once they tasted the necrotic flesh. Everything else did.

And it had been an hour since the Princess was taken by that deceiving hedgehog. How Toadsworth hated that hedgehog, he would even mutter it, "I hate that hedge-hog!" earning the confused glances of his fellow survivors who heard the cusp of his hateful chant. But he meant it full and well, for long since the days of his youth he had harbored resentment of the Acorn Kingdom when it was run by the insidious Doctor Robotnik.

The very doctor who transformed animals and even plants, not barring sentient mushrooms or any other kind of fauna, into mechanized slaves who devoted their energy to building an army and empire for him. Toadsworth recalled the day his very family ... he shook the horrid memories away, but kept the scalding anger from them in his mind. Everything the Acorn represented infuriated him!

And he let their "hero" carry the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom to certain death. Rather than facing the inevitable with her beloved people.

Nevertheless, he had no other choice but to go through with her last order.

From what he had seen on higher ground, Mushroom Castle was in chaos. Mario, with all his ilk, was nowhere to be seen. Luigi was either devoured or otherwise indisposed, and there was no word from any of the other kingdoms or any way to request assistance. The professor was an old Toad himself, and among him were inexperienced, helpless Toads who were now frightened and disorderly.

No Toad here was in a position to fight. The Mushroom people were peaceful, almost neutral folk. And they relied on the Brothers and their unique abilities time and time again, yet here the only salvation from this macabre catastrophe would be to retrieve the texts of the very spell that once cast the kingdom into stagnation. The singlemost powerful vex of all dark Koopa magic... a spell that could subvert entire lands into cubical domestication. A decimating, awful curse the banes of which could never be forgiven by modern science nor religion. Just to speak of it, Toadsworth feared, could cause the others to challenge him for his very life.

* * *

There was a place not far from the walls of Castle Toadstool that hadn't been touched by scores of the walking dead.

Piles of hay, red mushrooms with two black spots on them, and carrots were neatly spilled into a wooden wagon. The wagon sat a little way from a house, a house with a giant pipe extending from its roof and large wrenches on the left side of the house, proof that the house's owners didn't believe in house calls. This house was located in a small forest and was directly connected to Vista Hill on its west side, while a short hike east brought travelers along Mushroom Way, a plain path that led straight into Toad Town. The exit at the end of Mushroom Way was once guarded by a Hammer Bro, special forces of the Koopa Army, but Mario reclaimed the path from them long ago.

The house was built by two brothers. Well, one at least, for Mario put his name on the front of the house and later let his brother move in. "Mario's Pad" was a rich patch of land that heralded all kinds of plants, a fact that the brothers took clean advantage of and started planting flowers, vegetables, and trees all throughout the area.

Today a square of orange, red-petal flowers with black eyes basked in the sunlight, and the tail trees were already dropping their leaves onto the ground, disrobing for a season that wasn't supposed to come for at least another month.

Standing on the front porch of the pipe house, the woman put her hand on her chin and thought about how best to proceed. She decided to leave the chore of raking those leaves to her brother, and so she picked up a small box by her feet and walked over to the wooden wagon.

She dropped the acorn-colored mushrooms into the wagon, and she wondered what was taking her brother so long. He said he was going to patrol the Mushroom Kingdom for a bit and get some exercise while he was at it, and unless he'd stumbled upon some kind of crazy quest or relic...

'That's silly.' Lucy tucked her green hat down, 'Bowser's gone. Smithy's defeated. And the Koopa Clan is all but finished.'

A small figure raced down Mushroom Way. A Toad, no less, and one that was scared out of its mind.

"MISS LUIGI! MISS LUIGI!" cried the distressed mushroom, "THE PRINCESS IS IN TROUBLE!"

* * *

"He's a madman, the old shroom! He's mad!"

For the first time in his life, Toadsworth regretted his own wisdom.

He sighed and tried to explain the dangers to them. "The kingdom is under attack, and our heroes are the potential cause! All this time, we relied on two men to defend us, and now one has turned, quite literally, upon us! The princess HERSELF ordered me to unleash this dark spell of my own free will should the situation worsen!"

The old mushroom was right, even though it was the Mushroom Chancellor's job to demand such dangerous options be put into effect in times like this.

His opposition was still fierce. An elderly Toad yelled, "Old codger. I'm not risking my life or my son's life out there! Do you even have the book for this... this heresy?"

"If I did, I certainly wouldn't reveal them to someone opposing the very Mushroom Princess herself!" Toadsworth retorted.

A wrinkly Toad, not younger than the "gentlemen" who yelled at the professor, but experienced nonetheless, offered her words. "This spell, it's the one that turned all of us into miscellaneous objects long ago. During the Great War...?"

The professor nodded.

"And if used... there's no telling who or what might free us?"

Again, a solemn nod. Toadsworth added, "One Brother is part of this monstrous horde, the other is nowhere to be found..."

Toadsworth rubbed his beard and turned away from the survivors. He stared at the empty throne sullenly, and he lingered there, watching the throne as if expecting the princess to just magically materialize there. Yet his hopes weren't met, and with a minute of silence gone by, one of the reluctant elderly Toads roared at him.

"WE CANNOT SIT BY AND LET YOU KILL US! YOU WILL NOT KILL US, Toadsworth. WE HAVE SURVIVED WORSE THAN THIS. We. Will. NOT RETURN TO BLOCKS, STONES, AND WEEDS!"

"WHAT CHOICE HAVE YOU, friend! WHAT CHOICE HAVE ANY OF you?" his temper lost, the professor ordered, "I WILL PROCEED TO THE MAGIC VAULTS THAT LAY BURIED WITHIN THIS CASTLE ALONE IF I MUST. I WILL NOT RETURN. YOU MAY STAY HERE and wait for those doors to be torn apart and then be TORN APART breathing and feeling as you are! I WILL OBEY..." his voice coved at that second, losing energy, "...her Majesty's last request."

Silence molded against the walls. Even the obnoxious rumble of fists and skulls on the throne room doors began to quieten, and the Toads watched the professor walk away with senior slither.

Some still saw the old professor for his impractical, sacrificial decision-making, yet no one capable sought to stop him as they did before.

Toadsworth wasn't out of the room by the time his prediction had come true. The doors splintered and cracked, and finally the dead broke through the barrier and penetrated the royal halls of Mushroom Castle, and the throne of its late kings and queens, sending the surviving Toads into a tornado of panic and fright.

Just as the dead creatures, mixed between mutilated Toads, disemboweled Parakoopas, and even pieces of Goombas, started their approach, a voice yelled down to the Toads that were fleeing.

"GET BEHIND THE THRONE!"

A green moth descended into the crowd of carnivorous cretins, then exploded into a show of wondrous, crackling flame that devoured the demons. When Toadsworth and the other survivors gazed upward, they saw a person wearing a white shirt standing above them atop one of the pillars that rose to, but didn't touch the ceiling.

A white-shirted figure with brown hair and blue eyes, and on top of this person's head was a cap with the letter 'M' on the front.


	8. Sunrise

**Sunrise**

A curtain of green fire smothered the gory ranks of the flesh-eaters.

Toadsworth couldn't believe his eyes and he tried to smile, but his lips were filled with dread despite what his vision told him. He rubbed his eyes and blinked fast, checking his vision only to see the same figure only now moving to protect them from the creatures that were still attempting to cross the flames. Many succumbed to the walls of flame and their blackened corpses formed a tall bridge over the curtain, allowing a rigorous entrance to those desperate. And the creatures were more than desperate, no, they hungered for the confused and grateful souls that roamed the halls of Castle Toadstool. Death presented no deterrence for them, and even when they were touched by flame they continued their bloodthirsty climb.

"It won't take them long to break through! Hurry, this way!" Mario shouted at them.

The voice was familiar, but unusual. Toadsworth and the Toads followed the knight's order and retreated behind the throne. Mario leapt from the ceiling and landed where they were standing, and with a cry he hurled another fireball into the flaming curtain and the hill of bodies that erected over it. The impact of the condensed flame caused the bodies to scatter, as if a Bob-Omb had detonated, and the creatures melted on the other side.

A spark ricocheted at the Toads. Mario shielded them and took the brunt of the flame on himself. The flames covered his body and his clothes began to fade away, and Toadsworth was the first to notice that 'Mario' was not only still standing, but his clothes had changed color and his body had been altered by the splash damage. Curiously, the now green hat showed the letter L instead of an M.

Long, brown hair fell down the sides of the green-hatted warrior's head, and 'Mario' kept his head pointed in the direction of the fires he'd started. A feminine body, long hair, and now green clothes... Toadsworth was more astonished than he was when he first saw her, shocked at his realization. The woman who saved them pulled out a mushroom the likes of which the old professor had never seen before. The texture of this mushroom was blocky and stone-like, almost like she had carved a mushroom out of solid stone, but that was impossible because she quickly shoved the mushroom into her mouth and chewed it like an ordinary vegetable.

Her clothes vanished and in their place came a mimicry of rocks and gravels.

She didn't waste time explaining herself, instead she crawled into a fetal form and her body turned into one huge boulder form where only her face was visible on the 'front'. Just then she turned around with magical force, and launched herself directly into the back wall of the throne room, knocking a hole big enough for several people to walk through. The shock canceled her "boulder form" and transformed the woman back into her rock-based armor.

Next she pulled out a flower from her back pocket. This flower had the traits of a cloud, it was white and feathery, almost ethereal but the stem could be held like a regular solid object. Two black dots on the cloud-like flower floated at the center of the cloud, and when she ate it, her rock armor underwent a second transformation; becoming a different uniform, one made up of clouds where her clothing was and exposing the mid-section of her arms.

"Follow me, use the clouds as platforms!" the woman yelled back to the Toads.

All complied as the woman hopped out through the wall and produced a cloud beneath her feet, creating a solid path. The Toads followed, the young carrying the elderly and hopping to each cloud. Toadsworth was the last. When he got near the first cloud, the woman returned to the level of the throne room and landed next to him. The others followed the short path of clouds she'd left behind, leading them onto the roof.

"I cannot go with them, Sir Luigi. I gave the princess my word that should no hope be in sight, or in the event she did not return from the United Council, that I would activate the spell that the evil King Koopa sealed us with long ago!"

For the first time, the woman named Luigi looked startled. Toadsworth's words were serious ones, almost heretical in nature. "You can't be..."

"I am. The princess ordered it. Do not try my patience or question my loyalty, I have had to flee while watching my own brethren be torn apart by these monsters! I watched helplessly as YOUR brother spread this plague, turning the other mushroom people into heartless cannibals!"

Toadsworth started to walk past Luigi as she stood there, taken back by his harsh rebuttal and thinking about their options. She shook her head vehemently.

"I can't allow this Toadsworth!"

The old professor stopped in his tracks, but he didn't face her.

"The princess, where is she?"

Toadsworth scowled. "SHE IS DEAD! HER MAJESTY IS DEAD. And it is all YOUR BROTHER'S FAULT. He came back HERE, sick as dickens, spewing blood without any control. NOTHING WE TRIED would work on him, he just kept BLEEDING and then when the princess tried to heal him, he BIT HER. BIT HER HAND, INFECTED HER. Despite this, she ordered me to make the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE should she not return!"

He gulped, collecting his words, and continued fiercely.

"I was naive back then, naive to think such a pox could be REMEDIED. Once you are bitten Luigi, you become one of THEM in a matter of HOURS. HOURS, do you hear me? I studied them and learned as fast as I COULD... medicine cannot cure them, not even MAGIC can cure them! Even severed LIMBS are attacking, even Goombas that have been SQUASHED can come back to life! We are not fighting a PLAGUE, or UNDEAD... we are fighting PESTILENCE itself! This is what nature does unchecked, life REFUSES to end for them! This is what happens when life CANNOT be snuffed out! Truly, this is an INVULNERABLE foe!"

Luigi took a step back in horror, horror both at the news of the princess and at Toadsworth himself.

"And by now... OUR PRINCESS HAS BECOME ONE OF THEM. DO YOU SEE, NOW! I would imagine life as a TREE preferable to being TORN APART and EATEN while I still BREATHE, Sir Luigi. Now either help me-"

Toadsworth threw his cane and it bounced off an unknown wall.

"-or END ME."

They stared each other down, Luigi still in her cloud suit, Toadsworth without his cane.

Fires roared around them and began to lay destruction upon the entire room. The emerald walls rendered the creatures asunder, and what few survived were blinded by the intensity of the flames.

* * *

_Two days later..._

Bunnie Rabbot reached the top of the hill and told the others that the Console was already triggered.

The building was gone.

Rotor said it was designed to go underground, a feature that he spent weeks convincing Dr. Light and Dr. Kintobor to help him build. Overlanders, or "humans", weren't fond of living underground or living in secrecy, but Mobians, anthropomorphic animals, had long existed under the shadow of Doctor Robotnik. Their home, Knothole, became the home of the Freedom Fighters who had long ago disbanded once Sally ascended the throne and Sonic became her knight.

And here they were again; Bunnie, Rotor, Antoine, and Tails, all searching for Sally and Sonic. Both had been missing for forty-two hours now. Acorn's hierarchy assumed the worst and Elias Acorn, Sally's estranged brother, was promoted to the throne in her stead and still mustering the Acorn Kingdom's Army to search for their former Queen and champion.

The reunited Freedom Fighters didn't wait for the prince's command. Using the Freedom Fighter Special, they were near the Console region in less than an hour, and Antoine and Rotor used Extreme Gear while Bunnie and Tails sprinted there on foot. The former was due to her cybernetic legs, and the latter was thanks to years of following Sonic on his adventures.

"Something must be wrong if the building's still submerged." said Rotor, pulling out a handheld device that he started pushing buttons on.

"Tch, maybe they're hiding out down there while the world ends." Antoine joked.

"Don't joke about that, Antoine!" Bunnie slapped him on the back of the head, making him squeak with pain. "You know Sally-girl wouldn't up and abandon her kingdom like that!"

"I'd almost want to believe that..." Tails mumbled, eyes puny.

This drew the attention of everyone, even Antoine who was kidding about it.

"You can't be serious." said Bunnie.

"I said almost. Reason being, if it wasn't, then that means that Sally and Sonic have either been trapped down there against their will... or something went wrong and something unthinkable happened."

* * *

From afar, the kingdom still looked more peaceful than it had two days ago.

The sun was slowly climbing the horizon, embellishing the kingdom's features. Villages torn to shreds, not ransacked or pillaged, and streets underlying a castle fraught with litter and body parts.

Strange loners orbited those streets, picking up specks of meat and savoring the carnage in their ghastly teeth. Survivors were immediately spotted, sensed in a way, and targeted by the creatures.

They could only retreat to smoldering buildings, and the castle was exposed as only portions of the stonework survived the immense fire that overtook it just days before. The stench that emanated from Mushroom Castle could overwhelm any man, and the woman in the green hat tried hard not to breath through her nose while she scanned the ruined kingdom for what scarce signs of life she could find.

She gave up in moments, because from where she stood on Vista Hill, just overlooking the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms, there was gloom and fire in either direction. With her arms crossed and her eyes darkened by her cap, the Toads couldn't decipher if she was upset as they were, or if she was completely indifferent on the matter.

She promised to lead them to safety, but in her mind, she had given them shallow words of confidence. As a former Mario "brother" people saw her brother and herself as symbols of hope, champions of good, warriors for peace. That was why she had disguised herself in her brother's trademark red shirt and cap. Using those two things could bring hope to the mushroom people, but none of it brought her the smallest or even temporary peace.

There was no telling what had become of her brother, if he had truly become part of these raging hordes or if he had started it all, or where he had contracted it from, or where this disease led him... if he hadn't been burned to ashes during the castle's destruction. All of this floated within her, and it simmered only when one of the survivors approached her and asked for an update.

Are we moving forward, or are we still waiting?

They would ask her things like this now.

Is it dangerous here, isn't it dangerous here, can I find something to eat?

All the time, it was all up to her to watch over them. No more 'Yes Princess' or 'Okay, Mario and I will handle it!' or 'Ya-hoooo!' in conjunction with her sibling. At least until they could find a settlement or rally with some other survivors, or maybe find a city with walls open to the living.

"Umm... Sir Luigi? Can we leave now? We're all getting restless, and the woods keep making terrifying noise!"

The Toad that asked her this tugged on her pant leg. She stared at him, the little Toad boy who looked just like all of his mushroom siblings except that he was shorter than most, and forced a smile through her expression.

"Yeah, tell the others we're moving on. I'm finished here." she told him, "Oh, and one more thing. My name is Lucy."

...

**...The end.**


	9. Sunset

**Sunset**

Success was a freshly-baked pie after a mission.

A medal earned at the end of an extremely arduous, heated race.

The sweat of a yearly deed.

Success was the hacking Rotor performed that opened the underground vault, the Console Building that was sealed into the ground by some of the greatest minds of this age. All it took was the press of a button really. One small button and a DNA scanner to get the room shut off from the rest of the world, keeping out all access or so it seemed. And now, with minutes of diligent effort, Rotor the Walrus had cracked the seal and soon the vault would raise to their level. No one knew if this was a good thing or not, but they knew that Sonic & Sally were their friends, deeper than that even, and that they had to help them no matter what. The Freedom Fighters stood together, awaiting the building's ascent.

Bunnie took a fighting stance and her cybernetic legs allowed her to hop nearly as fast and as hard as Sonic could run. Tails knelt down and readied himself for a spinning dash, a move that Sonic taught him when he was little because it could bust through steel and greater if used effectively. Rotor pulled out a wrench, his trademark equipment, and Antoine pulled out a saber, his weapon of choice.

When the building surfaced at last, Tails and Bunnie opted to scout ahead in case of danger. They approached the doors cautiously, and after looking through them they signaled Antoine and Rotor to get closer. They entered the building normally and saw the oval area where a receptionist and a line of government workers should have been. There were none, and an eerie silence blanketed the room.

Someone made a noise.

Bunnie got ready to kick to them to high heaven when she turned and saw that it was just Antoine, stifling a sneeze.

"Antoine!" the three called him out.

"I am sorry! I have allergies in this time of year!" he apologized with his French accent.

They walked through the reception hall until they were at a flight of stairs that probably led to an important office. A hallway fed into a circular passage where flags from different nations were hung up. The flags of Acorn, Mushroom, Hyrule, Castlevania, Sarasaland, Tetris, Dreamland, and several others were all visible and well-maintained. Next to each of these flags was a portrait, or plaque, of that nation's current leader or leaders.

The central conference room was entered through a security console designed for two hands. Each hand grabbed onto one leg of the device and push two joysticks in multiple directions, and the "password" so to speak required that the joysticks be moved up twice, down twice, the alternate on and off from left to right, before two buttons, labeled B and A were pressed afterward.

This security had never failed. That, however, wasn't the problem.

"Guys, over here, look!" Rotor called.

It had been six minutes since they first entered and began their search, and their efforts were finally rewarded.

"The chamber... it's already been opened!"

"That means they're okay! Okay, we-w-we-we should go and look for them." Antoine said, stuttering.

"Come on Antoine, we've been here the whole time and we didn't see anybody!" Bunnie addressed, "We have to keep looking for..."

The rabbit's voice froze when she peered down the end of the hallway.

A red substance was plastered on the floor, and an outstretched arm laid over it. Bunnie and Rotor moved up first, and Tails tugged Antoine and made him come forward. When they saw it in full, there was no denying it. Dried blood caked on the floor and the walls, and the outstreched hand was severed from whomever it belonged it to.

Antoine shrieked and fled the room, and Tails tried to grab him but failed,

"Let him go Tails... we've got to find Sally and Sonic!"

"Whwhat happened here?"

"Some kind of... battle? I don't think this was some ordinary brawl... my god." Rotor examined the arm, "-Sonic would never be this brutal. Who else would have the strength to completely tear off an arm?"

"That's not the worst of it!" Rotor pointed elsewhere, to a mess of bones sitting on the floor.

Some had been chipped like someone was gnawing on them.

And that wasn't even the "room" yet. When they investigated further and reached the end of the hallway, they found the door slowly closing and opening back and forth, as the mechanism was jammed by what looked like another arm that was blocking the doorway. Bunnie kicked the door open, and one glance revealed the conference room was nothing more than a bloodbath.

Bodies decorated the conference room, and blood caked the monitors and the bones that were strewn over tables and in piles. Chairs were knocked over and spear weapons had been stabbed into the ground or discarded. They found what looked like Hylian guards, but their insides were decaying and their cavities and limbs were removed in 'intriguing' fashions. There were plenty of dead guards, bloody chairs, and signs of manslaughter. There was a festering, crunching sound over one of the bodies, and some scraps of a dress around the foot of...

...the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach Toadstool.

"Holy cow, it's Princess Pea... peach!"

Her body was bent in an awkward position while she sat on her knees, cradling something against her chest.

"Pri... princess? We're the Freedom Fighters of the Kingdom of Acorn... we want to find our Queen and comrade... please, if we help you, can you tell us where they are, and what caused all of..."

Bunnie heard the sickening crack the princess made as she corrected herself. The princess's dress was tattered in places none imagined a princess would ever tolerate, and the way her body trembled as if starving she resembled a poor child surrounded by dead bodies and potentially disease. The back of her neck, and her arms themselves were gray, and she looked very thin, almost emancipated. Some bone was showing. Some of her fingers were missing, and part of her neck was melted. There were blood stains in her hair and, as she faced them in a mockery of her princess posture, white eyes spun at them.

And then the princess fainted.

Rotor rushed to save her from her fall, but he couldn't stop her from hitting the floor and producing another viscous _crackle_ from her person.

"Princess Toadstool! Stay with us!"

"GYYYYAAAAUUUU-HAAAA-HAAAA-HAAAUUUUUUWWWWrrrrr-!"

The scream that bounced its way to the conference room was Antoine's undoubtedly.

"Rotor, tend to the princess! Tails, go and find Antoine and bring him back here as fast as you can!" the fox complied and took off at top speed. Bunnie looked at Peach, "Princess, why are all these bodies here! What is going on!"

The princess wearily moved her head, her lips shaking with flesh peeled back from them.

"He... hEhe... heeeHeee He hEh... hehE..."

Bunnie gasped.

"The hedgeeehog... he... said this would beeee to eeeassy."

_Crunch_.

Rotor let out a terrible wail as Peach took a huge bite through his stomach. Blood gushed out of him when she took her second bite, and her third, swallowing down chunks of the walrus as Bunnie watched. The rabbit tried to kick her, but another scream bellowed through the halls and this one belonged to Tails no less. But concern hadn't piqued Bunnie's attention. She ran, soaked in an indescribable adrenaline while her heart punched her chest.

The vision of Peach eating Rotor wasn't registering. How did things go from bad to worse like this, just a moment ago there were people dead and now... and now one of the sweetest rulers in the world was EATING people!

She was so scared she didn't even notice the body of Antoine sitting in front of the corridor she'd fled from, his head no longer on his shoulders and two eyeballs placed neatly by his shoulders.

* * *

When she made it to the reception hall, she stopped and saw what had caused Tail to scream.

Sonic was there by the entrance. And in his hand was a bloody hand that belonged to Sally Acorn. Her body, her corpse, was being dragged by the hedgehog as he neared the doors. Her eyes had been plucked out, leaving two gaping, empty holes filled with an unknown darkness that made their blood chill. One of her arms was removed, exposing part of her left clavicle, and the rest of her was mainly a rack of skinned red tissue.

And when Sonic turned his head around, he had part of Antoine's head jarred inside his mouth, a frozen expression of torture left on the poor coyote's face.

"What god-damned joke is this!" Bunnie finally exploded, her sanity slipping. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!"

She charged at Sonic, murder flashing through her eyes.

Tails watched her unsure of what to do when he felt pain in one of his tails. Peach gnawed into one and tried to bite it off, but Tails did a Spin Dash and trapped her underneath him. He skidded on her face with enough force to chew up dirt, bedrock, and especially flesh, and when he released, all that remained of the princess's face was the memory of a once envied beauty. Tails dashed downstairs, trying to intercept Bunnie and Sonic.

He was too late. Sonic reacted and stopped Bunnie dead in her tracks, widening his jaw enough so that he could catch her entire arm with his teeth.

Struggling in his jaw, Bunnie screamed at him and punched his head.

"YOU WANT TO EAT ME YOU GODDAMNED MONSTER! JUST TRY IT! JUUUST TRY AND EAT ME LIKE YOU ATE ALL OUR' FRIENDS! YOU MON-!"

Sonic ripped off her arm and pushed Bunnie through a storm of excruciating spasms. Her throes made the murderous hedgehog glare with content as he chewed along the rim of her arm.

"It must be my lucky dayyy!" Sonic growled at her, spewing blood and spit from his mouth, "I BIT YOUR RRR-RREAL ARM!"

He seemed to make sure that the blood splashed on Bunnie's eyes, and while blinded, Sonic dove into her with his nightmarish speed. Tails broke out of his spinning dash as the crunching noises returned, as Sonic consumed the screaming bunny, his very friend's own flesh while she was still alive, peeling off string after string, trying to pluck every liter of torment he possibly could. The horror only lessened when he bit into her eye and stretched it, and then the life finally slipped from Bunnie's eyes. Her life-support systems could no longer sustain the damage Sonic was inflicting, and she died in a terrible position.

Seeing this as the last surviving Freedom Fighter shelved whatever bravery the young fox had left in him. He snapped, and sped through the exit as fast as he could. The hedgehog whom he formally idolized was too busy eating the remains of Bunnie to notice that his old friend had left, and when the princess managed to hobble over to Sonic's current meal, she indulged as well.

Neither reflected any regret over this. The murders, the brutality, the betrayals.

They began reflecting some intelligence over this persistent hunger once they had devoured those inside the conference room. It seemed that in eating every single piece before a person had the chance to resurrect, that person nor their appendages could return to life.

Sonic devised a plan to lure their 'rescuers' into a false sense of security, and now both he and Peach had gotten their fill.

But still, they hungered. And it was due time before this hunger took over again.

The hunger was strong, but armies would be mustered to stop it.

Armies, and militaries, and even deities would be summoned to fight them.

Two could not battle the world, not alone as they were. They needed more. More like them. More hungry, hungry people. Allies, strong ones, who could understand their pain.

Sonic exited the Console building, and prepared for the craziest sprint he had ever sprinted in his entire life. He paused to look at his hand, now egregiously decayed from where he was bitten and wounded, and snickered.

'Or whatever the hell _this_ is supposed to be...'

* * *

Sonic raced across the world gathering, or rather CLAIMING food wherever he could find. Using his extraordinary speed, he traveled from coast to coast seeking to satisfy his hunger. He did not eat all of his victims, saving the strong ones to be turned into allies. His numbers grew, and his tactics changed, and with every meal his forces grew stronger.

The world would never be the same.

* * *

In a laboratory hidden from the common eye, a man was sitting down with a microscope and examining an alien organism.

He waited, and waited.

He waited more.

He continued to wait.

There would be no results without waiting.

Patience was a virtue.

And his wait finally came to an end.

The sample was negative; he cursed his luck, given how long it had taken to retrieve this sample alone, but it had shown no signs of reversal or defeat.

"I guess you were right, Albert."

The man wore a lab coat and had a big white beard, not unlike what a certain holiday figure would have. He had stern, hopeful eyes that accomplished much in the field of science and technology. His greatest achievement was in Robotics, where he produced a form of artificial life determined to protect the vestiges of natural organic life. He called that success Mega Man, a true honor to the name of mankind. In Mega Man's stead, there was a line of other robots designed to accomplish many other complicated tasks. Guts Man, used for construction, and UFO Man, a satellite-type robot who could help repair and build space stations. Many others documented under the title of "Robot Masters".

This came under fire as being unethical, but the robots were built with three major rules. The first and foremost being that they should never harm a human being or, through inaction, allow any human to come to harm. While the masses accepted the robot workforce provided these policies were in place, it was easy to re-program these robots to do whatever the programmer wanted. As was the case of his colleague, a smaller genius named Doctor Wily, who commandeered Light's series of robots and programmed them for evil deeds. It was Light's second creation, the legendary Mega Man, who went out of his way to stop the rogue Robot Masters and shut down Wily's operations.

"How ironic this is, turning to me in this time of crisis."

"The Mega Man X project is far-off, and I cannot find an answer to this biological catastrophe. We are running out of time Doctor..."

"I am far more aware of that than you, Thomas." said the bitter colleague. "But your constant destruction of my genius creations has put me at a setback... I have only prepared 7 Robot Masters, and half lack their unique weapons."

"The creatures are right on our doorsteps. If we don't relocate, we'll be overrun and... consumed. Like the others."

"Death has far greater plans for the infamous Doctor Wily! I won't be cattle for a freakish twist on nature! Robot Masters, it's SHOW TIME!"

Wily pulled a lever and the hangar doors whizzed open. The wind blew the white tarps back... and the seven Robot Masters stood together as the doctors's last true line of defense: Air Man, Cut Man, Shadow Man, Gemini Man, Pharaoh Man, Needle Man, and Slash Man lined up and faced the direction of the open sea that was pulling away from them.

The battleship they were on was pursued by the Babylon Rouges on their hoverboards, and behind them were Buzzbombers, their armors partially cracked open.

A much, much bigger threat loomed over them. A gigantic shadow darkened the flying cannibals and the creature the shadow belonged to dwarfed them entirely. A slender, elongated beast that resembled a kind of flying serpent, and the scales or skin upon it fit the ancient nature of this winged beast as it chased after the battleship, possessed by a mysterious force. From afar, it was difficult to spot the creatures that lingered on the creature's back and the small tufts of fur that grew along its back, and there was a considerable amount of blood covering one part of its body. The enormity of such a beast made this injury insignificant, however.

Dr. Light had heard of such magnificent, and terrifying beasts. This was the thirteenth of a species called the Colossi, a species said to have been banished to a forgotten land.

And somehow, it was their luck was to find such a mythical monster ruling the deadly skies...

...**The End?**


End file.
